Out of the box
Giving advise
Several friends around my age of 75 years suffer from various kinds of chronic problems, such as diabetes, high blood pressure and high cholesterol. Some suffered from these conditions for many years.
I am fortunate that I do not have these conditions. But I suffer from a different condition. Every few months, I feel a pain in my foot when I walked up and down the stairs. This was probably caused by gout.
My doctor described it by a medical term that I keep forgetting. He also prescribed medication that I used whenever the pain occurred. The latest medication is celecoxib.
I became more familiar with the medication, than the medical condition that I kept forgetting. Anyway, the medication worked.
When my medication runs out, I see the doctor and asked for celecoxib.
Guess the name of the medical condition.
My inability to recall the name is a sign of partial dementia, or selective memory loss, which is probably common at my age.
Back to my friends. Whenever they tell me about their chronic conditions, I listened to them tell their stories. I do not attempt to give advise to them, on a subject that they are familiar with, and that I know little about from my personal experience.
My approach is quite different from many other people.
Often, I get advise from them on a matter that they know little about. They give their unsolicited advise using motherhood statement because they want to show that "they care" or to appear "smart". I find them to be unhelpful.
Some people criticized me that I do not accept advice. I delete their criticism. They are irrelevant and useless in my Facebook page.
Sometimes I respond on a matter that I think my friend may be wrong. I do it carefully. I avoid giving any impression that they are wrong, because I might have misunderstood the circumstances.
I share with them the facts that I know of the subject, and do it politely. I let them decide if my facts are relevant or useful.
Tan Kin Lian
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you are the old guard and you expect the younger generation to show you the due respect that you expect but it's online. it's just generation gap.
farni 21 Jun 2023